Healthy and playing some sugar-sweet basketball, the Miami Hurricanes are the latest team to grab a No. 1 seed in our latest bracket. Miami sits atop the East Region. Despite a last-second loss at Illinois, Indiana remains the No. 1 overall seed thanks to an impressive road win at Ohio State on Sunday. Michigan and Duke are the other top seeds. Based on recent history, however, the race for the top line is far from over. Arizona, Florida, Gonzaga, and Michigan State are in the mix, too. And it’s not too late for Syracuse to move back up. Then there’s Kansas, which put together an impressive bounce-back against rival Kansas State on Monday.

Bracket rules what they are, there are a few quirks in this edition – such as potential third-round rematches between Illinois and Gonzaga and Kentucky and Duke. While the Selection Committee tries to avoid such rematches in the first two/three rounds, it’s not a hard-and-fast rule. In these cases, other conflicts created the rematch scenarios. In fact, Illinois is one a few teams that moved a seed line to avoid bracket conflicts. A true nine seed (s-curve No. 36), the Illini couldn’t be placed in the top half of any region because of other Big Ten opponents. Such moves are not uncommon.

As for the bottom of the bracket – or the bubble – Baylor, Temple, La Salle, Saint Mary’s, and St. John’s are the last five teams in today. One could make a case for a handful of others. Virginia is a particularly challenging case and is the first team out. The Cavaliers are 6-0 vs. Top 100 RPI teams – including a win at Wisconsin. But they also have several troubling losses – none more than Old Dominion at home. UVA also has a very weak non-conference strength of schedule. It’s hard to be confident in the Cavaliers’ profile given the above scenario.

We have a long way to go. Other teams knocking on the door? Villanova, Arizona State, Massachusetts, Boise State, and Stanford. And that might change by midweek. It’s been one of those seasons. Enjoy another great week of hoops.

Teams in CAPS represent the projected AUTOMATIC bid based on current standings. Exceptions are made for teams that use an abbreviation (UTEP, BYU, etc). Records are for games against Division I teams only.

FIRST FOUR PAIRINGS – Dayton (First Round)

St. John’s vs. La Salle | East Region

Temple vs. St. Mary’s | Midwest Region

NORFOLK STATE vs. FLORIDA GULF COAST | Midwest Region

UNC-ASHEVILLE vs. SOUTHERN | East Region

BRACKET PROJECTION …

EAST – Washington, DC

MIDWEST– Indianapolis

Lexington

Dayton

1) MIAMI-FL

1) INDIANA

16) UNC-ASHEVILLE / SOUTHERN

16) FLA GULF COAST / NORFOLK ST

8) CREIGHTON

8) VCU

9) MEMPHIS

9) Colorado State

Austin

San Jose

5) Ohio State

5) Marquette

12) St. John’s / La Salle

12) Temple / Saint Mary’s

4) BUTLER

4) Kansas State

13) LEHIGH

13) AKRON

Philadelphia

Dayton

6) Oregon

6) San Diego State

11) North Carolina

11) Colorado

3) SYRACUSE

3) Louisville

14) DAVIDSON

14) HARVARD

Auburn Hills

Lexington

7) UNLV

7) NC State

10) Oklahoma

10) Iowa State

2) Michigan State

2) FLORIDA

15) VERMONT

15) NORTHEASTERN

SOUTH – Dallas

WEST – Los Angeles

Auburn Hills

Philadelphia

1) Michigan

1) Duke

16) BRYANT

16) LONG BEACH

8) Missouri

8) Kentucky

9) Saint Louis

9) Wichita State

Austin

Kansas City

5) Oklahoma State

5) Wisconsin

12) MID TENNESSEE ST

12) BELMONT

4) Pittsburgh

4) Georgetown

13) LOUISIANA TECH

13) VALPARAISO

Salt Lake

Kansas City

6) Notre Dame

6) Cincinnati

11) Baylor

11) Indiana State

3) NEW MEXICO

3) KANSAS

14) MONTANA

14) S.F. AUSTIN

Salt Lake

San Jose

7) UCLA

7) Minnesota

10) Illinois

10) Mississippi

2) GONZAGA

2) ARIZONA

15) NIAGARA

15) WESTERN ILLINOIS

NOTES on the BRACKET: Indiana is the No. 1 overall seed followed by Miami-FL, Michigan, and Duke.

On Thursday afternoon, Brad Underwood, the new head coach of Illinois, was invited to Wrigley Field to throw out the first pitch and sing ‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game’ during the seventh inning stretch.

While the ceremonial first pitch went well, his rendition of the ballpark classic did not go as smoothly.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The American Athletic Conference will hold its men’s basketball tournament in a new arena in North Texas in 2020.

AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco announced Wednesday that Dickies Arena in Fort Worth has been selected to host the tournament for three years, starting in March 2020. That is only four months after the facility is scheduled to open.

On the same day of a groundbreaking ceremony for the 14,000-seat arena last April, the NCAA announced that first- and second-round games of the 2022 NCAA men’s basketball tournament would be held there. The NCAA women’s gymnastics championships are scheduled there from 2020-22.

The closest AAC school to the new arena is SMU, with its campus in Dallas about 40 miles away.

Orlando will host the 2018 AAC tournament, which moves to Memphis in 2019.

North Carolina has wrapped up a two-day hearing with an NCAA infractions committee panel that will decide whether the school faces penalties tied to its multi-year academic scandal.

Now the case goes into yet another holding pattern.

School officials spent much of Wednesday in a closed-door meeting with committee members in Nashville, Tennessee. They returned Thursday morning for a second session lasting about 4½ hours with the panel that will determine whether UNC faces penalties such as fines, probation or vacated wins and championships.

NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn confirmed the hearing was complete but both sides were mum afterward.

Osburn didn’t comment further because the panel must deliberate before issuing a ruling, which typically comes weeks to months after a hearing. UNC athletics spokesman Steve Kirschner said the school wouldn’t have any comments about the hearing either.

Getting through the hearing process was a major step toward resolution in a delay-filled case tied to irregular courses, though there’s still the potential for the case to linger beyond a ruling if UNC decides to appeal or pursue legal action. The school faces five top-level charges, including lack of institutional control.

The focus is independent study-style courses in the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM) department. The courses were misidentified as lecture classes that didn’t meet and required a research paper or two for typically high grades.

In a 2014 investigation, former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein estimated more than 3,100 students were affected between 1993 and 2011, with athletes making up roughly half the enrollments.

The NCAA has said UNC used those courses to help keep athletes eligible.

The case grew as an offshoot of a 2010 probe of the football program that resulted in sanctions in March 2012. The NCAA reopened an investigation in summer 2014, filed charges in a May 2015, revised them in April 2016 and then again in December.

Most notably, the NCAA originally treated some of the academic issues as improper benefits by saying athletes received access to the courses and other assistance generally unavailable to non-athletes. The NCAA removed that charge in the second Notice of Allegations (NOA), then revamped and re-inserted it into the third NOA.

UNC has challenged the NCAA’s jurisdiction, saying its accreditation agency — which sanctioned the school with a year of probation — was the proper authority and that the NCAA was overreaching in what should be an academic matter .

The NCAA enforcement staff countered in a July filing: “The issues at the heart of this case are clearly the NCAA’s business.”

UNC has argued non-athletes had access to the courses and athletes didn’t receive special treatment. It has also challenged Wainstein’s estimate of athlete enrollments, saying Wainstein counted athletes who were no longer team members and putting the figure at less than 30 percent.

None of the coaches are charged with a violation. But football and men’s basketball are referenced in the broad-based improper benefits charge tied to athlete access to the irregular courses, while women’s basketball is tied to a charge focused on a former professor and academic counselor Jan Boxill providing improper assistance on assignments.

Boxill and Deborah Crowder, who is also charged individually in the case, attended Wednesday with their attorneys but didn’t return Thursday. Crowder is a former AFAM office administrator who enrolled students, distributed assignments and graded many of the papers in irregular courses.

The infractions panel is chaired by Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey and includes former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Here’s what allegedly happened: He was at a bar in Overton Square in Memphis at 1:30 a.m. when he was handed a bill for more than $88 by a waitress. That waitress, who said she went to high school with Lawson, told police that he walked out of the bar and got into a Nissan Maxima and left without paying the bill.

Dedric has denied the allegation. Appearing on 92.9 FM, an ESPN radio station in Memphis, he said that he ordered two drinks worth a total of $10.50 and gave the waitress $12, but she wanted him to pay for drinks that were ordered by other people for other people. He did not order or drink those drinks, Lawson said, so he did not want to pay for them.

Lawson transferred from Memphis to Kansas this offseason. He was suspended by the Jayhawks for an altercation in practice last month and left home from the team’s trip to Italy earlier this month. He averaged 19.9 points and 9.2 boards for the Tigers last season, and will be sitting out this year as a transfer at Kansas.

At least five programs are currently in Barcelona: Clemson, Arizona, Oregon State, Grand Canyon and Tulane. All five programs have released statements confirming that all members of the traveling parties are safe and accounted for.

The attack occurred right outside Clemson’s hotel. The team is currently on lockdown.

According to Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle, the attack “happened directly in front of our hotel while we were having a team meal in the restaurant.”

Our entire travel party is safe and accounted for following the situation in Barcelona today. Our thoughts are with the people affected.